COVID-19 Cases Reach 135,361 by 9 PM... Cumulative Total Surpasses 3 Million

18,167 Fewer Than Yesterday

On the 25th, medical staff at the temporary COVID-19 screening site in front of Seoul City Hall are holding a hot pack against a face shield. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, as of midnight that day, the number of new confirmed cases increased by 165,890, bringing the total to 2,665,077. / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] As the spread of the Omicron variant continues, the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases exceeded 130,000 by 9 PM on the weekend of the 27th.

According to Seoul Metropolitan Government and other local governments, from midnight to 9 PM on that day, the number of people confirmed with COVID-19 in 17 cities and provinces nationwide was counted at 135,361. This is 18,167 fewer than the 153,528 cases reported the previous day. Compared to the count of 93,260 cases a week ago on the 20th, it is about 1.5 times higher, and compared to 53,390 cases two weeks ago on the 13th, it is 2.5 times higher.

Earlier, the number of new confirmed cases announced as of midnight on the 27th was 163,566, and the cumulative confirmed cases reached 2,994,841. Since about 130,000 new cases had already occurred by 9 PM, the cumulative confirmed cases easily surpassed 3 million. It took 748 days (2 years and 18 days) from the first confirmed case in Korea on January 20, 2020, to reach 1 million cases on the 6th of this month. With the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreading rapidly, it took only 15 days to reach 2 million cases (on the 21st of this month), and the interval shortened further to just one week to reach 3 million cases.

By 9 PM on that day, new confirmed cases were 75,115 (55.5%) in the metropolitan area and 60,246 (44.5%) in non-metropolitan areas. By city and province, the numbers were: Gyeonggi 37,077, Seoul 27,973, Busan 10,452, Incheon 10,065, Gyeongnam 7,619, Daegu 5,800, Chungnam 5,132, Gyeongbuk 4,921, Jeonbuk 4,057, Gwangju 3,894, Daejeon 3,683, Jeonnam 3,320, Gangwon 3,195, Chungbuk 3,052, Ulsan 2,486, Jeju 1,800, and Sejong 835.

As the Omicron variant has become the dominant strain in Korea, the number of new confirmed cases is rapidly increasing. Over the week starting from the 21st, the daily new confirmed cases were 95,359 → 99,569 → 171,451 → 170,009 (corrected from the initially announced 170,015) → 165,890 → 166,207 (corrected from the initially announced 166,209) → 163,566, averaging 147,436 cases per day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.